I was really unsure when I signed up for
the Miami Half Marathon. I had done one last November, and I had surprised
myself and finished it…in not too shabby a time either (for a newbie) but it
was no were near the size or on the scale of the Miami ING.
Since I have the goal of running 24
races this year (2013) I decided to add a little something to it – I wanted 5
of these to be Half Marathons. This will help me in preparing to run my first
full (hopefully in 2014)
I had no idea what to expect with the
Miami ING but it did not leave me wanting. I had a few friends running it with
me and even better, I had a few close friends from my Kickboxing classes coming
down to cheer me on as well.
This was officially the largest race I
have ever done and I am pretty sure unless I go do the London Marathon, Boston
Marathon or something on that level, this will be the biggest race I ever
do! Over 25,000 people showed up and
over 24 countries were represented.
We headed down to Miami to pick up our race
packets at the Food and Health Expo and we did a little shopping. I didn’t get
much, but I did find these awesome wine glasses: Splendid Stems.
She had these awesome wine glasses that had great sayings like: I Run for Wine or Bottle of Wine = 475 Calories, or 5 Miles. Yeah, start running!
Sadly,
when I went back after walking the entire expo, she had sold the last I Run for Wine glass, but since I was
planning on doing the Sarasota Half and the artist lived in Sarasota, she
agreed to let me pick one up when I went out there! Such a nice lady!
On race day, I didn’t have to even
consider dragging my butt out of bed! I was psyched and ready to go! My friend
drove down and we got there nice and early so we could find parking and get to
the start line. We didn’t want to feel rushed and I am glad we weren’t, I was
awestruck by all the people, the family, the friends, the supporters, the runners!
It was amazing to be a part of something like that.
This was the first time I had also ever
had to go into corals, depending on your speed. When I had registered for the ING,
I hadn’t even run my first half yet, and I had no idea what my time would be so
I had put in something like 3 hours, but after the Fort Lauderdale Half
Marathon (back in Nov 2012) I knew I would be doing this around 2 hrs and 30
min, so I moved up into a faster coral so I wouldn’t get slowed down….this did
not really help. Besides the people that
were at the front of the pack (coral A-C) there were people walking. I believe
I ended up in Coral E and from the gun people all around me set off walking,
which I always find extremely frustrating. I had to spend a lot of time the
first mile, weaving in and out of people walking and stopping to take pictures
and talk. I felt like this did effect my time.
I just wish if people are going to walk
a race, they go to the back of the line. I don’t understand why they always
want to be in the front when they know they are not planning on going very fast
at all!
As I ran, it was a beautiful route. We started
at the American Airlines Arena and went up and over the bridge out by South Beach
and back. There were crowds along the entire route cheering the runners on, it
was so encouraging! People were out representing their countries in full force
and it was great! I loved seeing the British flag being waved when I turned one
of the corners to head back over the bridge!
There were plenty of restrooms (porter
potties), water stops and even fruit being handed out along the route. I did
see a number of people get pulled or stop from the race for various reasons and
quite a few people being cared for by the Medics that were all over the place.
You never realize just how pressing a half marathon is on your body until you
are miles into it, it is something that you should never just jump into and do,
it is something that you should train for and be prepared for!
One thing I noticed was Publix had a
huge presents, they even had the Publix’s mile.
When I came down to the last 2 miles, I
could feel every muscle in my legs screaming for me to slow down, stop and
relax, but when I came towards the 2 mile marker and saw my friends cheering me
on, waving at me and holding up signs it really did give me the strength I needed
to finish strong! I managed to complete the MIAMI ING in 2:00:19! So much
better than I had originally planned, and you know next time I am going to be
pushing myself to break 2 hours!
My next race (4th of 2013) is the 5K Foam Fest. Should be a nice
calm race after this one, especially since it not timed. (If I would have known that I wouldn't have signed up, but oh well, I guess we will just have fun with it!!)
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment